The old mill of Vernon

A mill on a bridge

The old mill of Vernon, a half-timbered
construction, lies straddling two piers of the ancient bridge over the Seine
River.

Several mills like this one used to be operating on the river all along the
old wooden bridge. This bridge itself was built in the XII th century, the
mill is probably of the XVI th century. The old bridge has been destroyed
and rebuilt several times in the middle age. It was very unsafe and was
definitively detroyed in the beginning of the XIXth century. Then it was
replaced by a stone bridge in 1861. Destroyed during the war in 1870 it was
rebuilt in 1872 and then bombed in 1940. So the bridge you cross today
to go from Vernon to Giverny is the
fourth generation. It was built in 1955.

The mechanism used to be a pending wheel like Saint Jean mill, a nearby
mill now destroyed, or like the mill of
Muids.

Between 1925 and 1930, the old mill belonged to a revue spectacular composer,
Jean Nouguès, who managed a dancing on a barge moored nearby.

In 1930 he sold it to an American, William Griffin.

After the death of William Griffin in 1947 the city of Vernon tried to
find his heirs but did not succeed. The mill was damaged by the bombings
of 1940 and 1944. It was about to fall into the Seine River when the city
of Vernon undertook its salvage.

Now the old mill is a symbol of Vernon. It illustrates the postal logo
of the city.